Turkish authorities announced Wednesday that three members of the PKK terrorist group surrendered to a border post on the Turkish-Iraqi border. The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on Wednesday that the terrorists fled a PKK stronghold in northern Iraq and turned themselves in at Habur in the southeastern Turkish province of Şırnak.
The ministry said Turkish troops' "resolute operations" forced terrorists to surrender. Ankara maintains dozens of military bases in northern Iraq where it regularly launches operations against the group, which maintains a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains. In the last few years, intensifying operations in the region have demolished terrorist lairs in Metina, Avashin-Basyan, Zap and Gara. After eradicating the group’s influence in these regions, Türkiye also aims to clear Qandil, Sinjar and Makhmour.
The PKK terror group, battered and demoralized by Turkish security forces' successful operations, has been in recent years losing members and failing to attract recruits, according to Turkish officials. Officials said its numbers in Türkiye reduced to hundreds, unlike the period between the 1980s and early 2000s. Still, the terrorist group maintains a sizable presence in northern Iraq's rugged terrain, as well as in northern Syria, close to the Turkish border, where its Syrian branch, the YPG, exploits the instability stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war.
Authorities say less than 200 PKK terrorists remain in Turkish territories, while others are confined to Iraq and Syria. The southeastern region of Türkiye, plagued with terrorism for decades, regained a sense of normalcy, which is evident in flourishing tourism and other activities in the mountains once used as hideouts by terrorists.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced last month that some 45 members of the terrorist group whose families staged protests have turned themselves in since September 2019.
Intimidating the local population for years and occasionally killing those opposing their presence, the PKK terrorist group found little resistance for decades in southeastern Türkiye where it drew in members among the Kurdish population. But a group of brave women dubbed the "Diyarbakır Mothers" changed this perception on Sept. 3, 2019.
The mothers, who were later joined by fathers and siblings, launched a sit-in strike to demand the PKK return their children, including minors they abducted and tricked into joining. They chose the Diyarbakır offices of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as the location of their protest as the party is accused of close links with the terrorist group. Indeed, most of their children were persuaded by HDP officials to join the PKK or were brainwashed in events organized by the political party.
As prosecutors say in a trial seeking a ban on the HDP, the party acted as a recruitment office for the PKK. The "Children Watch," as the media also dubbed it, was unprecedented in Türkiye as well as the southeastern region, which the PKK used as a hideout, especially in the steep mountains of the region, and exploited the younger population for new recruits. Soon, the protest spread to other provinces in the region but most protesters are concentrated in Diyarbakır, one of the largest provinces in the southeast.
The number of families attending the protest reached 365 and their efforts have borne fruit since 2019. Two more mothers were reunited with their children within two days of Yerlikaya’s remarks in mid-August. Most escape the PKK – which is known for executing deserters – in Iraq and surrender to Turkish security forces on Turkish-Iraqi borders. From there, they are transferred to the offices of security forces where they are questioned before they are reunited with their families.